Shiite Hezbollah gunmen seized nearly all of the Lebanese capital's Muslim sector from Sunni foes loyal to the U.S.-backed government on Friday following the country's worst sectarian clashes since the bloody 15-year civil war.

Israel's prime minister ordered the army to scale back operations in Gaza on Monday after a sharp drop in Palestinian rocket fire, raising the possibility of a wider truce that would ease the path for peace talks.

A smattering of Hamas-affiliated security forces, many of them bearded and dressed in blue camouflage uniforms, fanned out on both sides of the breached Gaza-Egypt border Sunday to jointly police the crossing with Egyptian guards.

Egyptian officials began trying to control the masses of Palestinians flooding from the Gaza Strip Thursday, stopping some from moving deeper into Egypt but not attempting to reseal the breached border.

Egypt's foreign minister on Wednesday accused the Israeli lobby of harming its relations with the United States by using the issue of weapons smuggling across its border with Gaza as an excuse to cut Washington's military aid to Cairo.